Vizio E2VLE review: Vizio E2VLE

The question posed by the Vizio E2VLE series comes down to priorities. If your priority is getting scads of streaming video and audio content delivered wirelessly to your TV as cheaply as possible without having to use an external box, it's worth a look. But if your priority is getting good picture quality for the money, look elsewhere. The Roku LT can supply those scads to any TV for as little as $50, and the TCL L40FHDF12A is one example of a budget TV with picture quality that matches this Vizio's. Many others perform better at the same price, so despite a lengthy features list the E2VLE series is tough to recommend.

5.8

Vizio E2VLE

The Good

The <b>Vizio E2VLE</b> delivers plenty of features for the price, including a 120Hz refresh rate, Smart TV and built-in Wi-Fi connectivity. Its streaming video and audio selection is excellent. It evinced accurate colors and its matte screen helps picture fidelity in bright rooms.

The Bad

Compared with other budget TVs the 32VLE showed even lighter black levels, and it failed to properly handle 1080p/24 sources. Its Smart TV interface can seem dated, as can its styling, even for a non-LED-based LCD TV.

The Bottom Line

The Vizio E2VLE series may appeal to budget shoppers who just want Smart TV, but subpar picture quality hurts its chances against the tough competition.

Editors' note: The CNET Editors' rating above factors in a new Value score that joins Design, Features, and Performance in our ratings calculations for TVs. In the case of the Vizio E2VLE series, the Value score is 6.

Series information: I performed a hands-on evaluation of the 47-inch Vizio E472VLE, but this review also applies to the other screen sizes in the series. All sizes have identical specs and should provide very similar picture quality.

Design

The Vizio has more angles than a geometry textbook.

Photo gallery:
Vizio E2VLE series

The chunky, pedestrian exterior of the E2VLE series hearkens back to TV designs of a few years ago, when frames and panels were thicker, black was glossier and angles were sharper. Those angles on the frame seem intended to echo the "V" of the logo (which illuminates, and can be turned off), and the only other accent is a similarly angled badge proclaiming the presence of "120Hz Smooth Motion." The angular (see the theme?) stand refuses to swivel.

Unlike Vizio's higher-end Smart TV remotes, the clicker that comes with the E2VLE models lacks a backside QWERTY keyboard. The front side could be a lot better. It lacks illumination, the menu/exit/guide/back keys are too small, there's not enough differentiation, and no direct button to switch aspect ratio. Its best feature is dedicated keys for Amazon Instant, Netflix and Vudu streaming services.

Vizio's menu system remains unchanged from recent years, and it's still very good. It resembles another app in appearance, and we liked that the picture settings section is actually integrated into the main App taskbar (see below). Responses were fast, explanations complete, and we had no problems finding our way around.

The TV's menu system looks just like another app.

Features:
Vizio is known for getting more features to ever-lower price points, and by ditching expensive LED backlighting on the E2VLE series, it created one of the cheapest Smart TV-equipped models around. I like the addition of built-in Wi-Fi, and Vizio finally caught up with the competition by adding DLNA to browse files over a home network (it stopped responding and crashed in our brief test with a packed media server, however). The only image-affecting extra is 120Hz with smoothing, if you like that kind of thing (I don't).

DLNA capability is a recent Vizio addition.

Smart TV: Vizio still calls its app suite VIA for "Vizio Internet Apps," although its Web site now uses the generic Smart TV. Its design, based on the original Yahoo Widgets, consists of a strip along the bottom of the screen. It shows just four widgets at a time, so finding the one you want is a tedious scrolling chore if you any more than 10 or so installed. Vizio doesn't make finding new widgets any easier, with a "Yahoo Connected TV Store" that's crowded with entirely too much chaff, including way too many "apps" devoted to local TV stations. Overall the experience feels dated and definitely a step behind major competitors.

Content selection, however, is among the best available today. Since last year it has added CinemaNow, YouTube, and many others, leaving no major video services off the list (although sports apps like MLB.TV and NHL are still AWOL). There's also a Skype icon but it seems inactive for now--clicking it simply exited the system. Vizio is still the only TV maker to support Rhapsody, and with Pandora, TuneIn Radio and iHeartRadio there's plenty of musical choice too.

Lots of content, but just four tiles visible at once, makes using the apps interface a scrollapalooza.

Picture settings: The selection here is adequate but not up to LG or Samsung's standards, lacking a gamma presets, a 10-point grayscale, color management and fine dejudder control. There's a ridiculous number of picture modes so viewers who like to create different settings for all kinds of material and sources will have a lot to like.

Most of the picture controls and all of the presets are also available when watching streaming video.

Connectivity: The Vizio has ample inputs for high-quality sources, namely three rear and a fourth side HDMI, one component-video and one VGA-style PC input. There's just one analog video input, however, that uses the same jack as the component-video input. A pair of side-panel USB ports is also on hand.

Vizio offers just one analog input, which can handle either a component or composite source.

Picture quality

Picture settings:
Vizio E472VLE

I don't expect world-beating images out of a budget TV, but the Vizio E42VLE doesn't even beat other budget models. It earned the same 5 in this category we recently gave to the incredibly inexpensive TCL L40FHDF12A. The TCL actually has better perceived contrast and black levels, but falls short in color accuracy, so overall it's a scoring wash between the two. In our book, the addition of 120Hz doesn't mean much, since the E2VLE doesn't handle 1080p/24 sources properly, but if you like smoothing -- which isn't available on the TCL -- then you may be swayed toward the Vizio's picture.

Click the image at the right to see the picture settings used in the review and to read more about how this TV's picture controls worked during calibration.

Comparison models (details)
Samsung LN46D630	46-inch LCD
Sony KDL-40BX450	40-inch LCD
TCL L40FHDF12TA	40-inch LCD
Vizio M3D550SR	55-inch LED
Sharp LC-60LE645U	60-inch LED

Black level: Overall the Vizio produced the brightest, most washed-out shade of black in our lineup. In dark scenes, like Chapters 3-4 in "I Am Legend" (11:45 and later) when Neville closes up the house for the evening, it looked less impressive than any of the others by a wide margin, with less pop and impact. In brighter scenes the difference was less noticeable but still obvious, for example in the black of the letterbox bars.

For calibration I turned off the DCR setting to achieve better gamma. Turning it back on did improve black levels to a visible degree, but they were still worse than any other the others except the TCL (which basically tied the E2VLE). I'd probably keep it on if I owned this TV.

Perhaps as a result of that worse gamma, the shadows with DCR mode engaged appeared too-bright and transitions from dark to light didn't look the same as the other sets with better gamma scores, lending the image a flatter look than any (including the TCL). The trade-off for relatively better black levels was worth it, but definitely not ideal.

Color accuracy: The E2VLE performed quite well in this area, roughly matching the accuracy of the Vizio M3D550SR and the Sharp, and outdoing the others in this category. Skin tones were neutral during the kitchen scene with Anna and Ethan (Chapter 19, 1:05:49), for example, and very dark areas didn't show the overly bluish blacks we saw on most of the other sets. Colors lacked the richness and saturation we saw on any of the others, however, an issue I blame primarily on poor black levels.

Video processing: LIke most other Vizio TVs we've seen the E2VLE couldn't properly resolve the 1080p/24 in our test. The planes and deck of the Intrepid from "I Am Legend" (Chapter 7, 24:59) showed the choppy stutter characteristic of 2:3 pull-down, not the smoother, more regular caddence of film (more info). We played with the Real Cinema and Film Mode settings to no avail.

The Vizio scored a surprisingly good motion resolution result for a 120Hz TV (see the Geek Box, below), but to get that benefit you'll have to engage the smoothing effects of dejudder. I definitely don't think the tradeoff is worth it, not least because the benefits of high numeric motion resolution are, to my eyes, almost impossible to discern.

Uniformity: The screen of our E2VLE review sample was largely free of brighter blotches in darker areas, although the top edge did show a bit brighter than the rest, especially in material with letterbox bars. Seen from off-angle both Vizios washed out more quickly then any of the others, but did a better job of maintaining color accuracy.

Bright lighting: The Vizio's matte screen serves it well in bright rooms where lights, windows and bright objects cause reflections. The rest of the sets in the lineup also have matte screens, and in general they all performed equally well in this category.

Test	Result	Score
Black luminance (0%)	0.0823	Poor
Avg. gamma	2.23	Good
Near-black x/y (5%)	0.2848/0.2913	Poor
Dark gray x/y (20%)	0.3127/0.3292	Good
Bright gray x/y (70%)	0.3121/0.3286	Good
Before avg. color temp.	6674	Average
After avg. color temp.	6496	Good
Red lum. error (de94_L)	1.4557	Good
Green lum. error (de94_L)	1.1796	Good
Blue lum. error (de94_L)	0.1138	Good
Cyan hue x/y	0.2156/0.3274	Good
Magenta hue x/y	0.3219/0.1557	Good
Yellow hue x/y	0.4169/0.4976	Good
1080p/24 Cadence (IAL)	Pass	Good
1080i Deinterlacing (film)	Fail	Poor
Motion resolution (max)	1000	Good
Motion resolution (dejudder off)	300	Poor

Vizio E472VLE CNET review calibration results

Read more about how we test TVs.